Annalyse McHone of Eastern Montgomery High School (seated, center) has signed a letter of intent to run cross country and track at Emory and Henry College.
By Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Annalyse McHone, a distance runner from Eastern Montgomery High School, has signed a letter of intent to continue her career at Emory and Henry College.
McHone finished 17th this past season in the Class 1 cross-country meet, setting an all-time personal best of 21:02 in the 5K run. As a junior, she was on the 4X800 meter relay team which placed fifth in the state outdoor meet and was eighth in the 3200-meter run.
She said E&H is everything she wants in a college. “I wanted to go to a small school where I knew I wouldn’t get lost, and I felt completely safe on campus,” she said. “I am also a Christian, and church has been a very important part of my life and has always felt like home. So I wanted to go to a school that would have the feel of home as well, which for me is church for me.”
In addition to the state meet, McHone said, “Another really fun accomplishment that I got to be a part of came in the previous summer when my family traveled to Hawaii. I ran a 5K on the Fourth of July, and I placed second in my age group and in the top 100 out of over 500 runners. This year in cross country I also had the wonderful accomplishment of being second in my district, and the first individual Eastern Montgomery runner at region to advance onto state,” McHone said.
She plans to run both cross country and distance at E&H.
“My goals for running at Emory and Henry are to become a stronger and more powerful runner, to push myself even more, to reach certain times and placing as the time comes around, and to learn to enjoy running even more than I do now,” she said.
E&H is in Emory, Va., with an enrollment of 1,246 students. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in Southwest Virginia.
This past fall, Annalyse McHone finished 17th as an individual runner at the Class 1 state meet.
Shawnee Kegley is entering her second year as the head coach of Emory & Henry’s men’s and women’s cross country/track and field. During the 2018-19 campaign, she was the assistant coach for cross country and track and field.
She was also the head track and field coach at Chilhowie High School in Chilhowie, Va., and has served as a track and field coach at Patrick Henry High School and a counselor at the Blue Ridge Running Camp.
A six-time NCAA Division II All-American in indoor and outdoor track and field, Kegley was the Division II Champion in the 800-meters in 2011 (outdoor) and 2014 (indoor). Kegley was also named an Academic All-American® by CoSIDA in 2014.
Kegley is the only national champion in Concord University history. She was inducted into the Concord Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
McHone plans to major in exercise science, followed by physical therapy.
